The Changes Of Chinese Rural Family Ethics In The Perspective Of Living Space

As the basic cell of society, family is committed to certain social functions, and also requires certain of ethics and moralities to maintain and coordinate the regulations among family members. However, traditional family ethics is losing or has lost their old standard functions; the evaluation criteria of modern family ethics have become more diversified. Therefore, traditional and modern concepts are in a fierce collision, which continues to affect the stability of families.Due to constraints of disciplinary boundaries, spatial perspective has long been confined to the disciplines of science, geography, urban planning and so on. In 1980s, Western social science firstly turned to sociology, and spatial sociology immediately became the focus on sociological research. However, research on special sociology in China is relatively poor, and discussing family ethics in living space becomes even scarcer.After reading a large number of relevant literature, a HAN family in southwest of Shandong province is selected as a case study. Through comprehensive literatures, interviews and fieldwork, the paper tries to discuss the changing space as the starting point, from the three living forms--family courtyard, exclusive homes and small apartment in buildings, and interspersed in the family-related events, in order to find the changes of private space and public space which leads to changes of the ethics in couples, intergeneration, and neighborhoods, and ultimately give proposals of new rural family ethics.The research has drawn the following conclusions:Conclusion I:Living Space. The open courtyard of early large family is now gradually replaced by privacy apartment. Modern living space values personal privacy, and personal privacy protection is increased, while the traditional space of public communication has been losing.Conclusion II:Ethics of Couples. The husbands' dominant position in family is decreased, and is no longer the only central figure in family. Compared with that, status of women in family is gradually improved and become a main participant in decision-making of major family events; nowadays couples have their own choice in marriage, and views of elders are still important but no longer unique.Conclusion III:Ethics among generations. The elderly is no longer the central symbol of family life and is no longer enjoying privileges in space using. The family's attention is gradually shifted from older to young children; daughters, gradually assume responsibility for the maintenance of parents, and bear the same responsibility of sons. Meanwhile, the elderly try to minimize the living burden of their children and keep living alone, which leads to protecting the privacy of their own lives. Emotional communication between generations is much less than that before.Conclusion IV:Ethics among neighborhoods. The status of neighborhood-relation in social network declined, and interactions between neighborhoods is bound to reduce which results in indifference, and the difficulty in meeting emotional needs results in barriers to social interaction.